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Battle of the Mutara Nebula
The Battle of the Mutara Nebula was the final engagment between James T. Kirk and Khan Noonien Singh. In 2267, Capt. Kirk left Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V in exile. Because Kirk never returned to check on their progress, he had no way of knowing that a massive environmental calamity had occured that made Ceti Alpha V a desert wasteland. Nearly 18 years later, Khan seized an opportunity to achieve what he wanted for so long: the death of Kirk. Prelude In 2285, the [[USS Reliant|USS Reliant]] was on a survey mission to find a suitable location for Project Genesis, a program to turn an unihabitable world into an M-class planet. While examining what they thought was Ceti Alpha VI, Capt. Clark Terrell and his first officer, Com. Pavel Chekov, were captured by Khan and his followers. He infected them with a Ceti eel and learned why they came to the planet. Shortly afterwards, Khan and his people took control of the Reliant, marooned the crew on Ceti Alpha V, and headed for the Regula I space station. Provocation Meanwhile, the now-Admiral Kirk was inspecting the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]] when he recieved a transmission from Dr. Carol Marcus. Chekov already hailed her and told the science team that Starfleet was taking control of the project now, in the name of Admiral Kirk. Khan knew that they would call Kirk and ask to confirm the order, bringing him to Regula I. When communication broke, Kirk ordered the ship to proceded to Regula. While en route they came face to face with the Reliant, which initially failed to open communications. In a serious lapse in judgement, Kirk disregarded regulations dictating a defensive posture when encountering a non-communicative sister ship of the fleet. As a result, Khan opened fire in a surprise attack, severely damaging the Enterprise's weapons and warp drive. Khan then hailed Kirk, agreeing not to destroy Enterprise if Kirk would hand over himself and all the information the Enterprise computers had on Genesis. Kirk pretended to comply, but instead he and Spock entered the Reliant's prefix code, lowered its shields, and returned fire. With Reliant's photon torpedo launcher and warp drive disabled, Khan was forced to withdraw. When Kirk and an away team boarded Regula I, they found that the science team had been murdered. They also found a traumatized Chekov and Terrell in a closet. The Starfleet crew then beamed down to the planetoid and discovered the Genesis device, along with Carol and her son David Marcus. Khan, still controlling Chekov and Terrell through the Ceti eels, ordered them to kill Kirk. However, Terrell turned his phaser on himself and Chekov's eel exited his body. Upon learning from intercepted communications that the Enterprise would be crippled for days, Khan decided to maroon Kirk on the planetoid while taking the Genesis device for himself. However in doing so, Khan made his major mistake. For the predictions Spock gave about repairs were in a deceptively simple code that simply stated that the time needed for repairs was actually in hours and the crew managed to repair the weapons and impulse engines. They beamed the away team back and Kirk ordered the ship go to battle stations. With the damaged Enterprise still outmatched by the Reliant, Spock advised that they proceed into the Mutara Nebula, where the odds for both ships would be even. The Battle The Enterprise escaped into the nebula, with the Reliant in pursuit. The Reliant, knowing the limitations of fighting the nebula, refrained from entering. However, Kirk opened communications and taunted Khan to make him pursue the Enterprise into the nebula. Once they entered, both ships found their shields were disabled and their visual and tactical systems severely impaired. The conflict became a game of "cat and mouse", with both vessels firing at each opportunity they got. Khan opened fire first with a photon torpedo narrowly missing the Enterprise's starboard nacelle pylon. On the second opportunity of firing, the Enterprise was just aft of the Reliant but because phaser locks were rendered inoperable by the nebula, Sulu had little alternative but to aim them manually. As he was about to fire upon the Reliant, the Enterprise was rocked by a storm within the nebula, jogging Sulu's aim and the phaser fire narrowly missed the Reliant. In retaliation, the Reliant fired a torpedo from one of its aft launchers, comfortably missing the Enterprise. Some minutes passed with no conflict until both ships saw each other almost on a collision course and as the Enterprise performed evasive maneuvers to starboard, Khan fired phasers on the Enterprise, disabling the Enterprise's port torpedo launcher and damaging the engineering section, forcing Scotty to take the main engines off line due to radiation leakage. The Enterprise was able to inflict serious damage on the Reliant as well in the short firefight, firing phasers hitting just behind the bridge, killing Khan's first man, Joachim in the process. Spock told Kirk that although Khan was intelligent, his weakness was his inexperience - his attack pattern suggested that he was only thinking "two-dimensionally", not considering attacking from above or below, only on the same plane. Kirk ordered the ship to descend vertically and stand by on photon torpedoes. After returning to the bridge from medical treatment, Chekov offered his assistance to Admiral Kirk. Kirk ordered Chekov to the weapons console. The Enterprise crew caught Khan by surprise when his ship passed over the Enterprise, which allowed Kirk's ship to ascend behind the enemy and fire at close range - first a photon torpedo was fired from the starboard launcher, destroying the Reliant's own torpedo launcher. Secondly a phaser blast hit the Reliant's port warp nacelle, severely damaging it and finally a second torpedo was fired, completely destroying the nacelle, killing most of Khan's crew and maiming Khan in the process. In spite of the severe damage that the Reliant had sustained, Khan was not ready to give up yet. As a final act in the hope of getting his vengeance, a dying Khan activated the Genesis Device. For the Enterprise and its crew to survive the detonantion of the Genesis Device (in four minutes from Khan's activation), the ship's warp drive would have to be engaged but it was still off-line. Thinking about a deep conversation that he had with Kirk previously, Spock decided to sacrifice himself to save the ship and its crew. Inside the reactor, Spock repaired the warp engines. The Enterprise jumped to warp seconds before the Reliant exploded. The Genesis detonation then created a new planet from the debris of the Mutara Nebula. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) Aftermath Enterprise held a funeral for Spock, picked up the crew of the Reliant, and returned to Earth. However, Kirk learned from Spock's father, Sarek, that Spock could come back to life. Just before he died, Spock transferred his katra to Dr. Leonard McCoy. Kirk, willing to sacrifice his career to save Spock, gathered his command crew and returned to the Genesis Planet. Saavik and David were there on a mission to survey the planet, but their ship was destroyed by Klingons, eager to get information on the device. Meanwhile, Spock had been reborn by the Genesis effect, but was suffering rapid aging. The planet was on the brink of destroying itself when Kirk arrived. But Enterprise was disabled by the Klingons. Faced with a boarding party, Kirk activated the destruct sequence. Beaming to planet, Kirk was able to retrieve Spock, but his son David was killed. Kirk managed to beam himself and the others to the Klingon bird-of-prey and escaped just as the planet was destroyed. At a ceremony on Vulcan, they were able to reunite Spock's body with his soul. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)